The Realme Buds Air 5 case comes in a compact spherical design with glossy finish. The stems come with a rather similar design to these earphones' predecessor but there is an additional slit at the front for SNR noise-cancelling microphone. I found the fit to be comfortable even when I used these TWS for long hours at stretch.
Realme Buds Air 5 come with 12.4mm Mega Titanizing drivers that combine with Dynamic Bass Boost feature (needs to be enabled via Realme Link app) to deliver impressive bass performance. These TWS offer a consistent performance across the board.
With segment-leading 50dB active noise cancellation (ANC), the Realme Buds Air 5 manage to tune out ambient noise quite effectively. While these TWS use adaptive noise cancellation for difference scenarios, I found that the ANC worked pretty much similarly in most conditions.
Realme Buds Air 5 come with Bluetooth 5.3 support and offer 45ms ultra-low latency that allows for seamless connectivity and works flawlessly. With Realme Link app, you can get an even greater control over the performance of the earbuds as you can use Smart De-wind technology to reduce the noise from wind, adjust sound effect modes, and even perform Earbud fit test.
Realme Buds Air 5 has been claimed to offer a battery life of up to 38 hours with the case and up to 7 hours without the case. With ANC on, these numbers go down to 22 hours and 4.5 hours, respectively. In my usage I found the company's claims to be largely true. For casual users, these earphones can easily last a day.
Realme Buds Air 5 offer a quick charging support via USB Type-C port. The buds (along with the case) can be fully charged in 2 hours and the case itself takes around one hour to fully charge the buds. Around 10 minutes of charge can provide you with a playback of roughly 7 hours (without ANC).
Realme Buds Air 5 offer intuitive controls that are easy to learn:
- Double tap to pause/play or Answer/End calls
- Press and hold for 2s - Switch noise control/ transparency mode
- Smart wear detection enables content to play and pause as you wear or remove the earbuds.
Realme Buds Air 5 have been priced at Rs 3,699 by the brand and offer good audio quality (particularly bass performance), for the price. The ANC and call quality offered by these TWS make them an appealing buy in this price range. However, the battery life and build quality could have been better. Overall, the Buds Air 5 offer great value for money and can be considered if you are looking for a pocket friendly TWS.
Cons
- Case quality could have been better
- Pairing button could have been more tactile and placement could have been more convenient
Pros
- Decent noise cancellation
- Bass performance is good
- Good call quality
- Attractive price point